NASA launches spacecraft to explore metal-rich asteroid Psyche - On on Friday the 13th, October 2023, NASA launched a spacecraft from Florida on its way to Psyche, the largest of the several metal-rich asteroids known in our solar system and believed by scientists to be the remnant core of an ancient protoplanet, offering clues about Earth's formation.
The Psyche probe, folded inside the cargo bay of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, blasted off under partly cloudy skies from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral on a planned journey 2.2 billion miles (3.5 billion km) through space. The spacecraft, roughly the size of a small van, is due to reach the asteroid in August 2029.
The launch, shown live on NASA TV, marks the latest in a series of recent NASA missions seeking insights about the origins of our planet about 4.5 billion years ago by sending robotic spacecraft to explore asteroids - primordial relics from the dawn of the solar system.
Asteroid Psyche measures roughly 173 miles (279 km) across at its widest point and resides on the outer fringes of the main asteroid belt between the planets Mars and Jupiter.
Cargo-faring panels enclosing the spacecraft inside the nose of the rocket's upper stage were jettisoned about five minutes after launch, and the probe itself was released into space about an hour later. NASA has said the process for the spacecraft to autonomously unfurl its twin solar panels and to point its communications antennae toward Earth takes around two hours.
Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles confirmed detection of the probe's first radio signals shortly after it was seen on live video floating free from the rocket.
After reaching the asteroid, the spacecraft would then orbit it for 26 months, scanning Psyche with instruments built to measure its gravity, magnetic proprieties and composition.
According to the leading hypothesis, the asteroid is the once-molten, long-frozen inner hulk of a baby planet torn apart by collisions with other celestial bodies in the early solar system. It orbits the sun about three times farther than Earth, even at its closest to our planet.
The first asteroid of its kind chosen for study at close range by spacecraft, Psyche is believed to consist largely of iron, nickel, gold and other metals, with a collective hypothetical monetary value placed at 10 quadrillion dollars.
But the mission has nothing to do with space mining, according to scientists. Its objective is to gain greater understanding of the formation of Earth and other rocky planets that are built around cores of molten metal. Earth's molten center is too deep and too hot to ever be examined directly.
"So we say, tongue-in-cheek, that we're going to outer space to explore inner space," Lindy Elkins-Tanton, Psyche's principal investigator for NASA's mission partner Arizona State University, told a briefing for reporters on Tuesday.
Upon reaching Psyche, the probe is set to circle i
The Psyche probe, folded inside the cargo bay of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, blasted off under partly cloudy skies from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral on a planned journey 2.2 billion miles (3.5 billion km) through space. The spacecraft, roughly the size of a small van, is due to reach the asteroid in August 2029.
The launch, shown live on NASA TV, marks the latest in a series of recent NASA missions seeking insights about the origins of our planet about 4.5 billion years ago by sending robotic spacecraft to explore asteroids - primordial relics from the dawn of the solar system.
Asteroid Psyche measures roughly 173 miles (279 km) across at its widest point and resides on the outer fringes of the main asteroid belt between the planets Mars and Jupiter.
Cargo-faring panels enclosing the spacecraft inside the nose of the rocket's upper stage were jettisoned about five minutes after launch, and the probe itself was released into space about an hour later. NASA has said the process for the spacecraft to autonomously unfurl its twin solar panels and to point its communications antennae toward Earth takes around two hours.
Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles confirmed detection of the probe's first radio signals shortly after it was seen on live video floating free from the rocket.
After reaching the asteroid, the spacecraft would then orbit it for 26 months, scanning Psyche with instruments built to measure its gravity, magnetic proprieties and composition.
According to the leading hypothesis, the asteroid is the once-molten, long-frozen inner hulk of a baby planet torn apart by collisions with other celestial bodies in the early solar system. It orbits the sun about three times farther than Earth, even at its closest to our planet.
The first asteroid of its kind chosen for study at close range by spacecraft, Psyche is believed to consist largely of iron, nickel, gold and other metals, with a collective hypothetical monetary value placed at 10 quadrillion dollars.
But the mission has nothing to do with space mining, according to scientists. Its objective is to gain greater understanding of the formation of Earth and other rocky planets that are built around cores of molten metal. Earth's molten center is too deep and too hot to ever be examined directly.
"So we say, tongue-in-cheek, that we're going to outer space to explore inner space," Lindy Elkins-Tanton, Psyche's principal investigator for NASA's mission partner Arizona State University, told a briefing for reporters on Tuesday.
Upon reaching Psyche, the probe is set to circle i
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TechTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC]
00:02 >> There aren't many classes of objects left in our solar system that we haven't
00:07 looked at up close with a spacecraft.
00:10 And one of them that's left is the metal asteroids.
00:13 [MUSIC]
00:15 >> 16 Psyche is an asteroid that orbits the sun out between Mars and Jupiter.
00:20 >> The reason that Psyche is unique is that it is metal rich.
00:24 >> It's believed that it may be a remnant core of an early planetesimal that was
00:29 formed in the very, very earliest parts of the formation of the solar system.
00:33 >> And after this planet started forming and this metal core formed inside of that,
00:37 it collided with other bodies that then stripped off the rocky mantle,
00:41 leaving this core in place.
00:43 >> This is the part of planets that we can't sample directly today.
00:50 >> It's too hot, the pressure's too high, our instruments would melt.
00:52 Can't drill a hole that deep in the Earth or other planets.
00:55 So how do we study the core of our planet?
00:58 >> Psyche gives us the opportunity to visit a core the only way that humankind
01:02 can ever do.
01:03 And it would be the first metal object that humankind has ever visited.
01:06 [MUSIC]
01:10 >> After launch, we cruise through interplanetary space for a number of years.
01:15 First, we fly by Mars for
01:17 gravity assist that'll slingshot us into the asteroid belt.
01:21 And then we're thrusting all the way from there to finally arriving at Psyche.
01:25 [MUSIC]
01:29 We'll go into four orbits to collect the necessary measurements that we need from
01:34 our three primary instruments.
01:36 >> So our payload consists of a couple of imagers,
01:39 which are cameras that take pictures of Psyche.
01:42 Also a gamma ray neutron spectrometer,
01:44 which allows us to measure the elemental composition of the surface of Psyche.
01:47 And then a magnetometer,
01:48 which will allow us to detect any magnetic field that's left at Psyche.
01:52 If Psyche still has some sort of remnant magnetic field,
01:56 that probably tells us it really was a core.
01:58 It's a strong indicator.
01:59 We also use the radio on the spacecraft as an instrument, so
02:02 we can map out the gravity and map out the interior structure that way.
02:07 >> We're using a particular thruster technology,
02:11 Hall Effect thruster technology.
02:12 They operate five times more efficiently than normal rockets, so
02:15 they use a lot less fuel, and
02:17 is what allows us to get into orbit around this asteroid.
02:20 >> Solar electric propulsion has been around for quite a while, and
02:23 it has flown before, but we are continuing to push the boundaries.
02:27 We're gonna have big five panel fold out solar panels
02:31 that will provide the electricity for the thrusters,
02:34 which use as propellant the noble gas xenon.
02:38 >> This will be the first time that Hall Effect thrusters have flown in deep space.
02:41 >> Studying the evolution of a planetary body is a detective story.
02:48 There's a magic to when you actually are on the launch pad, and
02:52 you say, we're go for launch.
02:53 >> And you feel like singing and dancing, and
02:56 you feel like throwing up at the same time.
02:58 >> Let's go discover things about our solar system that we have no other way to do.
03:02 I think that it's fundamental to who we are, and also who we should be.
03:06 It's an incredible opportunity to be a part of the team making that happen.
03:10 [MUSIC]
03:20 [BLANK_AUDIO]
03:30 [MUSIC]
03:40 (upbeat music)